Category: Uncategorized

The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to grant expedited review of four cases involving the 2017 decision to end an Obama-era program (DACA) that postponed deportation for children who entered the United States unlawfully. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration’s decision to end the DACA program on…

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court declined to apply Chevron deference to uphold an agency legal interpretation in a case decided on May 28, 2019. Smith v. Berryhill involved whether the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) dismissal of an appeal in a disability case counted as a final agency action, which would allow the person filing for…

June 3, 2019: Larry Hogan announced he will not challenge Donald Trump in the Republican primary in 2020. Kirsten Gillibrand released her LGBT policy platform. Here’s the latest from the campaign trail. There are six new candidates running since last week, including one Democrat and one Republican. In total, 744 individuals are currently filed with…

The Federal Register is a daily journal of federal government activity that includes presidential documents, proposed and final rules, and public notices. It is a common measure of an administration’s regulatory activity.   During the week of May 27 to May 31, the number of pages in the Federal Register increased by 1,130 pages, bringing…

The Texas Board of Plumbing Examiners and the state’s plumbing regulations will cease to exist after the Texas State Legislature on Sunday failed to approve associated sunset review legislation. The state’s plumbing code will expire on September 1, 2019, and the board will wind down operations by September 2020.   The sunset bill—a type of…

In two separate rulings issued on May 17, 2019, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a 2017 law that amended collective bargaining rights for the state’s public-sector workforce. The court ruled 4-3 in the state’s favor in both cases.   What was at issue? In 2017, then-Gov. Terry Branstad (R) signed into law a series of…

Offices of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are formulating rules to clarify how they weigh the costs and benefits of potential regulations. These rules follow a May 13, 2019, memo from EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler saying that cost-benefit analyses have varied across the agency in the past and that new rules will promote more transparent…

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) on May 16 canceled nearly $1 billion in high-speed rail grants issued to the California High Speed Rail Authority. The federal government canceled the grants in response to the state’s failure to comply with the terms of the original 2010 agreement and failure to make reasonable progress on the…

A fight between UPS and Amazon over how a federal agency determines shipping costs will not proceed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On May 20, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case that challenged giving Chevron deference to the way the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) sets package delivery prices. UPS argued that…

On May 17, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed SB19-078 into law, which prohibits internet service providers from throttling or blocking otherwise legal content, services, and apps, and from establishing internet fast lanes. Providers violating the law would be required to repay the state for any funding received for rural broadband initiatives.   Colorado is…